Menachot 37a — the Talmud in English

Rabbi Yosei Ha-Horum [who had a sunken nose]

says: We find

indeed

that the right [hand] is called “hand,” as it is stated: “

And Joseph saw that

his father placed his right hand.”

But the other one:

The first tanna has no difficulty from there, because “

his right hand”

is explicitly

called [so],

but

“hand” without specification is not called

the right hand, but the left hand.

Rabbi Natan says:

It is not necessary to learn this from all these verses; rather, we learn it

since he

the verse

says: “And you shall bind

them as a sign upon your hand, etc., and

you shall write them,”

and we expound:

Just as writing

of the mezuzah is by the

right

hand, for this is the way of most people to write with the right hand, so too

the binding

of the tefillin is performed

with the right, and since the binding

is performed

with the

hand

right,

therefore

the placing

is

on the left,

for he binds with his right hand the tefillin placed on his left hand! Thus far is the language of the beraita.

And we raise the question:

And Rabbi Yosei Ha-Horum,

who holds that it is impossible to learn from “your hand” that the place of the tefillin is the left hand,

from where does he derive that the placing is on the left?

And we answer: Rabbi Yosei Ha-Horum

derives it

the law of the left hand for tefillin

from where Rabbi Natan derives it:

Just as writing is with the right, so binding is with the right.

Rav Ashi said:

Rabbi Yosei Ha-Horum learns the law of the left hand for tefillin from the fact that it is written

“yadkha” with a heh,

where it should have been written “yadkha,” but the Torah wrote it with the letter heh, which can be interpreted as

a weak hand,

and this is the left hand, which does not have strength like the right hand.

Rabbi Abba said to Rav Ashi:

From where do you have grounds to expound this verse as coming to teach us about a weak hand?

And say

that we should expound this verse as coming to teach us

“your hand that has strength” [as though it were written yad—strength], and this is the right hand? [And so we find in Sota that the letter heh is exchanged with het, for the expression

[as though “hand” had been written with a different letter, meaning strength], which is the right hand? [And similarly we find in Tractate Sotah that the letter heh is interchanged with the letter het, so that the expression

h

ynkei means

h

ynkei.]

He said to him,

Rav Ashi:

Is it written with

the letter

het?

But it is written with the letter kaf, and this indicates a weak hand.

And this teaching of Rav Ashi is

like the view of the tannaim,

who disagreed over whether the left hand is learned from “yadkha,” a weak hand, as it is taught:

“Yadkha”

is written with an extra letter

heh

to teach us:

This

is the

left hand. Others say:

“Yadkha” includes the one whose hand has been cut off,

whose palm was amputated while his forearm still remains, for the meaning of “yadkha,” weak, is a defective and impaired hand.

Another beraita was taught:

One who has no

left forearm

at all is

exempt from tefillin

and is not obligated to place them on his right hand [but with regard to head-tefillin, he is obligated; see Shagat Aryeh, section 37].

Others say: From the verse

From the verse

“yadkha”

we learn

to include one whose hand has been cut off,

whose palm was amputated while his forearm still remains, that he is obligated.

The tannaim did not disagree in this beraita. Rather, the first tanna said to exempt one who has no forearm at all, while Others said to obligate one who has no hand but does have a forearm Tosafot; and see Magen Avraham, section 27, subsection 3.

The Sages taught: One who is left-handed, whose greater strength is in his left and who performs his work with his left, places tefillin on his right ,

because his right hand

is his left hand

which is his weak hand.

And we raise an objection:

But it was taught:

A left-handed person

places them on his left

because it

is the left hand of every person?!

Abaye said:

This is not a contradiction,

because that [beraita] was taught

about a beraita stating that a left-handed person places them on the left of every person:

in

a left-handed person

who is proficient with both hands,

whose strength in both is equal; therefore he places them on his left, like everyone else.

The school of Menashe taught:

That which is written in the verse concerning hand-tefillin: “And you shall bind them as a sign

upon your hand”—this is the biceps,

as will be explained below in the Gemara. And that which is written in the verse concerning head-tefillin: “And they shall be as frontlets

between your eyes”—this is the crown of the head.

And we raise the question:

Where

on the crown of the head is the place for placing tefillin?

The school of Rabbi Yannai said:

He should place them on

the place where an infant’s brain is soft,

at the place that is soft when he is small, one year old.

Pelimo asked Rabbi:

One who has two heads, on which of them does he place tefillin?

Rabbi thought that no such creature existed, and therefore he said to him

Pelimo: You are mocking me, and you deserve punishment. Therefore,

either arise and go into exile,

go out into exile,

or accept excommunication upon yourself,

sit in excommunication.

Meanwhile,

before Rabbi punished Pelimo,

a certain man came

before Rabbi

and said to him: A baby was born to me who has two heads,

and he was uncertain with regard to the mitzva of redemption of the firstborn:

How much must we give to the kohen?

Was he obligated to redeem him with ten selaim, because the two heads emerged together and he is considered like two people, or was he obligated to redeem him with only five selaim?

A certain elder came and taught him:

He is obligated to give the

ten selaim to the kohen.

And we raise an objection:

Is that so? But Rami bar Hama taught: Since it is stated, “You shall surely redeem the firstborn of man,” I might understand that even

if

the firstborn is killed

within

thirty

days, the father would be obligated in his redemption,